


Light and Dark

by Salmon_I



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Vague future occurances, inconsistent timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-06 01:53:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20283445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salmon_I/pseuds/Salmon_I
Summary: Alex and Michael’s first kiss is in the dark.  The room in the UFO Emporium has glowing stars on the walls and lighted display cases of meteor pieces, but the room itself is dark...  It makes them want more, and they’re not worried about forever because in that moment they’re sure they’ll have it.Maria and Michael’s first kiss is in the dark.  There are stars shining above the Texas landscape, but the area around them is devoid of anything but the darkness of the desert when it’s empty... They’re not worried about forever - they’re worried about forgetting.





	Light and Dark

Alex and Michael’s first kiss is in the dark. The room in the UFO Emporium has glowing stars on the walls and lighted display cases of meteor pieces, but the room itself is dark. The two of them are young, and hopeful, and the moment feels like a promise. Like something they’ve both been waiting for, maybe all their lives, is finally here. Suddenly there’s a chance for a future they hadn’t been daring to hope for, even a few hours ago, and it makes them feel giddy, and happy and impatient. It makes them want more, and they’re not worried about forever because in that moment they’re sure they’ll have it.

* * *

Maria and Michael’s first kiss is in the dark. There are stars shining above the Texas landscape, but the area around them is devoid of anything but the darkness of the desert when it’s empty. They are both feeling bitter from the latest of life’s disappointments, hurting because someone they love is ill and nothing they’ve tried has helped, and lonely because they are alone. In all the meanings of the term. The moment still catches them by surprise, but they’re both willing to burrow pain beneath passion, and get caught up in the moment. They’re not worried about forever - they’re worried about forgetting.

* * *

It’s light when Alex wakes Michael with the gentle touch of his lips and hands. For a moment, everything feels hopeful. Gentle passion lulled by the early hour and the filtered sunlight. It feels like a long ago promise has overcome years of separation and pain and finally come to pass. The outside world is forgotten in a haze of feelings that have refused to go away despite distance and time. Then a horn is honking loudly outside and the moment is shattered.

“Does she know about us?”

“Would it be a problem if she did?”

“Yah.”

Reality is a crash landing. Painful, and humiliating as only the realization that what you have isn’t allowed in the light can be.

* * *

Morning light brings Maria awake, and the throbbing in her head is enough to remind her of choices made in a moment of shared pain and loneliness. Michael greets her with a cocky grin, but a physical distance. It isn’t by chance - the distance is on purpose. Far enough to allow them both to rebuild walls brought down by passion. Close enough to ensure no harm could befall her while she slept. The next move is hers, and it’s instinctively defensive.

“It never happened. Tell no one.”

Something in Michael’s eyes tells her it’s the reaction he’d been expecting. He’s used to being allowed in the dark, and turned away in the light.

* * *

It’s still light outside when Jesse Manes enters the tool shed. It’s a halo around him before he closes the door. The single motion seems to suck the light from the room. Where moments before there was giddy joy and the lingering connection of shared pleasure, fear invades. Alex moves to protect him first, but who has power here quickly becomes obvious. Michael has dozens of memories of his own where he stood in Alex’s place. He wants to spare him what he knows is coming. He wants to protect him. As the hammer falls, it’s not even the pain that’s the worst - it’s the failure.

* * *

It’s dark out the night of the gala, but in the room in the UFO Emporium neon lights line the walls. Maria lies motionless, too quiet, but safe. MIchael promised Liz he’d protect her and he means that promise. He protected her from Max’s accusation with words, but if the fourth alien does come, Michael will bring the building down before allowing him to touch her. He paces, and waits, and - when she starts to grow restless - sits down to soothe her.

“I can get Liz if you want me to go.”

“That’s the problem, I never do.”

The words sound like trust; feel like hope. In the neon lit room, for a brief moment, they both feel safe - and it’s both comforting and terrifying to think about what that means.

* * *

Alex and Michael’s first date, or the closest to a first date they have, is in the dark. The drive-in movie is playing a movie Michael has already admitted to hating, but he stays when Alex asks him to. He seems suspicious, but the moment still feels happy. A maybe. A hint of things that could be. They sit on opposite sides of the tailgate, and though they split the beer as promised when Alex goes to get food it isn’t shared. The night starts with physical distance, but it ends with emotional. With cold words, and accusations, and the shadow of the past haunting them both. Alex walks away, and Michael pretends he doesn’t care. They’re both terrible liars, but in the dark there’s no one to witness and call them on it.

* * *

Maria and Michael’s first date is in the light. It’s nothing fancy or special - just coffee and pastry at a table at Bean Me Up.

“People will see us together.” Michael finds himself blurting out when she suggests it.

The look Maria gives him is pure confusion. “Is that a problem?”

Tension releases from his shoulders, and a small happy smile lights his face. “No.”

“Well, then, coffee?”

It feels light, and happy, and normal. Far away from the dark.

* * *

Michael first tells Maria he loves her in the dark, and he means it. It’s not cosmic, or overpowering. It doesn’t feel like a crash landing. It feels warm and comforting and all the things he’s never known. Maria breathes it back, and they hold onto those words - hold onto each other for a brief few moments before letting go. Things have gone south quickly, like they always seem to. The Stow Away’s power and knowledge dwarf Noah’s - and his had already trumped their’s. He wants her to promise to stay safe, and she wants him to promise to come back, but in that moment they both know those are promises they might not be able to keep. I love you in that moment feels a lot like the beginning of the end.

* * *

Michael first tells Alex he loves him in the light. You’d think at this point they’d have figured out that communicating something important did not have to involve arguing or yelling. It was as if they each secretly believed that if they said something loud enough it would finally sink into the other’s stubborn brain. Michael is not happy about being left behind, and Alex is in full soldier mode and not backing down on this point one iota. Somewhere between threats of yellow pollen and being locked in his bunker, and threats to come after them if they don’t check in every twelve hours and aren’t back in twenty four, he shouts out the words like they’re an insult. Alex stares at him blankly for a moment, and then his mouth curls into a smug smile, before saying, “I know.” like the idiot and geek he is. Michael kisses the damn smug smile off his face. I love you in that moment feels like a promise for the future.

* * *

Maria kisses Michael for the last time in the dark. Everything that’s happened between them and the renewed Project Sheppard - everything that led to Alex getting injured, Max kidnapped, and the truth about Maria and her mother’s powers is too much. The love between them is based on the light. On comfort and safety, and normal, and there’s none to be had here. Perhaps never again. Neither he or Isobel can heal as well as Max, but at least between them both nobody is bleeding. Alex is still unconscious, and he hasn’t been able to stop watching him, fearing their powers weren’t enough - weren’t in time. He’s still weak from expending so much energy when she sits down next to him.

“Flint and I are going to check on Rosa and the others.”

He doesn’t like Alex’s brother that much, but he came through for them in the end, especially Alex. “You sure you don’t want me to come with you?”

“No, I think you’re needed here. And after everything I need… I need time to process it all.”

The look in her eyes speaks volumes. “This is how it ends, huh? Guess it counts as a bang.”

Maria’s gaze is gentle. “I’m sorry.”

The words deflate the defense he was working up to. “We were good at normal. I was happy.”

“So was I.” She admits “Be careful, Guerin.”

Kissing someone goodbye is every bit as painful as it sounds.

* * *

The first time Alex kisses him in front of anybody else it’s broad daylight. Rescuing Max took way longer than anyone liked, and he has a thousand and one worries about what Project Sheppard did to his brother. Between Liz and Isobel, though, he knows he’s in good hands. So he checks in with him briefly, squeezes his shoulder in the way they always seem to do when words can’t express things between them, then steps back and allows himself to breathe. For the first time in literal months it seems like everybody is safe, and they can finally catch their breath. It turned out Alex was right that he needed to stay, seeing as the group of them who had been left behind had ended up in a battle of their own.

“Are you alright?” Alex rounds the truck Kyle and Flint are helping Max climb out of, and Michael takes the time to realize, yah, they all look like hell right about now.

“I’m fine. Everyone is. We-” And that’s as far as he gets before Alex is kissing him. Five feet away from both their siblings, and in front of pretty much all their friends, and that’s new and frightening and wonderful. It’s the kind of crash landing he could get used to.

Alex seems to realize what he’s done, but though he breaks off the kiss, he keeps his hands firmly clasped around MIchael’s shoulders as if afraid he’ll disappear on him if he doesn’t. “Sorry, I just-”

Michael shuts him up with a kiss.

* * *

When Maria first sings to Michael, it’s dark. They’re in a small town bar in the middle of nowhere Texas, and it’s as smoky and ill lit as all bars of its kind. Though the stage lights shine almost as bright as she does. She flirts with him freely through the beginning of the song before going to drag Max up to join the fun - whether he wants to join or not. Liz makes him dance with her some more as Maria actually gets Max to sing. Or what passes for Max singing, which is possibly slightly better than either of their dancing, but that’s definitely not a compliment. There’s a thousand things wrong in all their lives, but in this moment they feel a million mile away.

* * *

Alex first sings to Michael in the light. It’s a picnic at one of Isobel’s town events, and it’s really not fair that she’s roped Alex in to making him attend these things. He is not a town event person, he tells them over and over, but it’s a moot point when the two of them have teamed up on him. The last thing he expects is for Alex to get up on the stage with a guitar and dedicate the song to the love of his life like that’s something normal people do. He’s going to give him a heart attack before his thirtieth birthday.

Isobel leans close to whisper to him over the opening guitar chord. “This song is dedicated to the love of my life. To his honey colored eyes, and wild curly hair and-”

“I will make your drink spill on that damn dress you’ve been going on about for weeks.” He threatens her in a hiss.

“Happy looks good on you.” She leans her head on his shoulder, and lets him get back to listening to Alex sing.

It’s a perfect moment in the light.

_Fini_


End file.
